The Republican Party claims to be the party of the Constitution, limited government, fiscal conservatism, economic freedom, government reform, free enterprise, private property, and the free market.

Is it?

The latest edition of the Freedom Index was just published in The New American. The Freedom Index is “a congressional scoreboard based on the U.S. Constitution” that “rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.” This edition of the Freedom Index is the third for the 113th Congress. The previous editions of the Freedom Index for the 113th Congress can be seen here and here.War, Empire, and the M...Laurence M. VanceBest Price: $16.00Buy New $9.95(as of 05:50 EDT - Details)

Looking at this latest version of the Freedom Index, there is only one conclusion we can draw about Republicans: they are enemies of freedom.

The average Senate score was 28 percent; the average House score was 39 percent.

No senator received a perfect score. The highest score in the Senate was the 89 of Jim Inhofe (OK), Mike Lee (UT), and Rand Paul (KY). Inhofe and Lee would have had a perfect score had they not voted for aid to Ukraine—something that is clearly unconstitutional. Paul would have had a perfect score had he not voted to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant program—an unconstitutional welfare program.

In the Senate, 9 Republicans scored between 80 and 89 (a B), 6 scored between 70 and 79 (a C), 12 scored between 60 and 69 (a D), and a whopping 18 received a failing score of 59 or less. This means that 40 percent of Senate Republicans are absolute failures when it comes to freedom while only 5 percent can be termed above average. John McCain of Arizona, whom Republican voters thought was an alternative to Barack Obama, scored a 56. Incorrigible warmonger Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who recently won a Republican primary, only scored a 44.

In the House, 7 Republicans, as mentioned above, received a perfect score, 4 scored between 90 and 99 (an A), 14 scored between 80 and 89 (a B), 16 scored between 70 and 79 (a C), 26 scored between 60 and 69 (a D), and incredibly, 164 receiving a failing score of 59 or less. This means that 71 percent of House Republicans are failures when it comes to freedom while only 11 percent can be termed above average. The head of the Budget Committee and Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, scored a 40. The former House Majority Leader Eric Canton scored even worse, a 30.

The only thing the Republicans have going for them is that they oppose Obamacare. But even that is only because it is not a Republican health care plan. Back in 2003 the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, the largest expansion of Medicare since LBJ’s Great Society, was instituted by a Republican-controlled Congress with the full support of the Republican leadership and signed into law by a Republican The War on Drugs Is a ...Laurence M. VanceBest Price: $8.95Buy New $5.95(as of 05:50 EDT - Details)president. Only 9 Republicans in the Senate and 25 in the House joined the vast majority of Democrats in both Houses in voting against “Bushcare.”

And Republicans don’t believe in any other kind of freedom either. They are not an alternative to Democrats. They are not the lesser of two evils. They are not “better” than the Democrats. They are not “libertarian leaning.” They are not our allies. They are not more constitutional than the Democrats. They are not “our friends on the Right.” They are not “liberty minded.” They are not our best hope. They are not our only chance. They are not improving. They are not our only option. They are not the best we have to work with. They will not be better this election.

The Republican Party is the party of lies, hypocrisy, crony capitalism, government regulation, the drug war, foreign wars, torture, empire, foreign aid, the welfare state, the warfare state, the national security state, and the police state. The GOP, as my friend Tom DiLorenzo describes it, is nothing but a Gang of Plunderers.

Republicans are worse than Democrats because of how they use libertarian rhetoric to deceive conservatives and libertarians into thinking that they actually believe in the Constitution, limited government, fiscal conservatism, economic freedom, government reform, free enterprise, private property, and the free market.

It is not that they are Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). They are Republicans. And they are enemies of freedom.